Food for ThoughtIsaiah 26:3 - Perfect Peace
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

Isaiah 26:3

New King James Version

3. You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26:3

Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

3. "A person whose desire rests on you
you preserve in perfect peace,
because he trusts in you.

God is calling us to a rest that is permeated by His presence and is where our mind is solely focused upon Him alone. Our mind is where the battle is; Our mind has been the territory of the evil one. Any time we worry or have fear or any other emotion not from God we are giving up ground to our adversary.

Our minds are constantly at work thinking about the next step before we've taken the last step. It seems we have to figure everything out in our day and most of the time the things we imagined don't even happen. This is one of Satan's strategies to keep us focused on earthly things. But when we focus on God we are proving we trust in Him. In the Complete Jewish bible the translation reads "A person whose desire rests on you....". This is an incredible visual. To rest on something is to give up completely to it. In this case, resting our desire, our passion, why we live, upon Him is to surrender entirely to Him. Allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us in our thought life produces a well spring of wisdom and peace.

It is difficult to keep our mind on God when we are surrounded by a fallen world. Even Peter failed the test when he began walking on the water after Jesus called him out of the boat. It only took a few moments for him to take his eyes off of Jesus and onto the crashing waves. This is a man who spent everyday with the Son of God: watching Him do miracles; proving Himself to be God and still he lost sight of Him and began drowning in his fear. How much more likely is it for us who have not seen the Lord with our physical eyes and are tempted to look away from Him by what the world offers?

It only takes a moment with us also and Satan watches and waits for that instant when we take our minds off of God. Because, keeping our minds on God is not a tangible thing or physical thing we walk around as if it wasn't important, but the truth is, we are being pulverized when we are not living in God's peaceful realm. Having our mind on God does not mean we don't think of anything else, it means that in the process of thinking about Him we are asking questions about the next steps, we are praising Him and sharing each moment with our creator. We can drive around doing errands with Jesus or we can ride around detailing each movement of our day. The latter usually brings stress; especially when things don't go right. But what if you were so focused on God that it didn't matter what you accomplished or didn't accomplish? It would bring peace knowing that you are right in line with God's will since you spent your day focused on Him and knew His will moment by moment.

God finds pleasure in us when we have our eyes on Him. He desires this because it draws us closer to Him and it brings peace into our hearts. God promises to give us perfect peace if our minds are on Him. This is not some kind of you must do this or else. The simple truth is that if you don't keep your mind on God you are choosing to keep your mind on things that will push away peace.

Even as I write this I feel God's all consuming peace in my soul and in my mind. In this moment that I am focused on Him, nothing is as important. It's like I just know that everything is going to work out and all will be fine. I wish I didn't have to leave this moment. So my goal is to have these moments to be my life style. Just in His peace, thinking on Him.

challenge: make this your goal. Practice keeping your mind on God through praise, through dialogue with Him and through sharing your moments with Him.

God bless

Marni

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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.